BACKGROUND: The integration of humanistic approaches, in which patients' personal experiences are acknowledged and inform practice, is integral to optimal healthcare. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we used an arts-informed narrative approach to understand and highlight the experiential and subjective qualities of illness and recovery from heart surgery. METHODS: An arts-informed analysis was conducted and we represented participants' stories of open-heart surgery through the media of poetry and photographic images. RESULTS: By using the arts as a method for analysis and dissemination, patients' unique and deeply personal experiences of heart surgery were illuminated. CONCLUSIONS: The arts can be particularly beneficial in healthcare and cardiovascular research, because they can inspire practitioners to become refamiliarized with the emotional, embodied, and psychosocial perioperative experiences of heart surgery from patients' perspectives.
BACKGROUND: The integration of humanistic approaches, in which patients' personal experiences are acknowledged and inform practice, is integral to optimal healthcare. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we used an arts-informed narrative approach to understand and highlight the experiential and subjective qualities of illness and recovery from heart surgery. METHODS: An arts-informed analysis was conducted and we represented participants' stories of open-heart surgery through the media of poetry and photographic images. RESULTS: By using the arts as a method for analysis and dissemination, patients' unique and deeply personal experiences of heart surgery were illuminated. CONCLUSIONS: The arts can be particularly beneficial in healthcare and cardiovascular research, because they can inspire practitioners to become refamiliarized with the emotional, embodied, and psychosocial perioperative experiences of heart surgery from patients' perspectives.